In terms of the virtual unanimity of people willing to lend funds or extend credit from any sector to any sector, I am supremely baffled by those who claim we are at great risk of inflation. Rather this is emblematic of an extremely serious risk of a deflationary burst.

Matthew Dubuque
mdubuque@yahoo.com

This bailout is being sold just as NSC-68 was sold: with the use of language that is “clearer than truth.”

I suggest you read this document by Steven Casey: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CWSC/pdf/selling_nsc_68.pdf

What is the real value of a $650,000.00 apartment on the Upper East Side where an alcove is passed off as a kitchen and a windowless box at the end of an ersatz hall is called a bathroom?

A close reading of Buffett’s comments will not lend credibility for the bailout bill.

Buffett’s argument:

The collective bailout will enable my private profits in GS.

I am not moved.

Responding to questions from lawmakers, Bernanke said that should the rescue succeed and spur an economic recovery, that may lead the Fed to raise interest rates sooner than it otherwise would. For the plan itself, “I don’t expect any effect on inflation,” Bernanke said.

Quick! The land owner is coming! Hide those chickens!

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a
transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had
crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion
dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most
profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my
replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may
know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the
1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds
as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names
of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family
lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person
who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account
numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to
wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for
this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with
detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the
funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

LIBOR has the money if you pay the rate. It will flow as soon as its sewe we are strong.

Buffett has his own personal agenda never forget it.
———————————–
From Richard Cohen WPost

Now the government is proposing another pig in a poke. The huge federal bailout is necessary, but Democrats are right to insist on detail and oversight. For too long, the financial markets have operated without much of either. Now the Bush administration is asking Congress for a blank check, what New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine calls the “moral equivalent” of the congressional resolution that wound up authorizing the Iraq war. Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs chairman (not to mention U.S. senator), is a voice worth heeding nowadays. When I talked to him, he had just gotten hold of the two-page administration program. Two pages! This is another exotic financial instrument.

The wise words of William Goldman, the screenwriter, should echo in Congress’s ears. He not only coined the phrase “follow the money” for “All the President’s Men,” but he expressed the sum total of knowledge about the making of movies with: “Nobody knows anything.” The same has been true about opaque financial instruments. It’s up to Congress to fix that.

The lesson of Leeson has yet to be learned. Financial markets have moved well beyond the trading of things that could be seen or measured or weighed. On Wall Street, older men employed the lingo of younger men to pretend they knew what was happening — but they didn’t. Now, Congress is being asked to do something similar. That won’t do. Bear down. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to regulate. Act as if you’re the government, for crying out loud. Because if you don’t do this right, you soon won’t be.

Yves-

For me this story is entirely consistent with your post earlier in the day about huge corporate cash reserves.

Everyone is hoarding cash. Nobody trusts anyone else. This applies to corporations and banks both.

Matthew Dubuque
mdubuque@yahoo.com

The buffet interview on CNBC was really embarrasing. He was either overtly lying or simply being disengenious, his expalantion of how he thought the gov't should buy the assets at market prices and that the gov't would make tons of money. Bugffet knows full well this isn;t the intent and yet he perpetutates the myth that somewhow this is good. Very sad to see someonw of his stature putting his own interests ahead of everyone else, but not surprising. Mush as his age would argue differently, I suppose he embodies the mentality of the current generation. The fleecing continues